Reviews by BeerFan:

It pours deep golden with a slight haze into my 16 oz Brooklyn Brewery pint glass. Thin white head which fades quickly, but leaves some decent lacing. Floral and lemongrass aroma. Orangey fruit, too. This beer is medium-bodied has a good malt backbone balancing the hops, but finishes with a nice crisp, citrusy finish. Hopheads may not love this beer too much, but this was brewed in the original English stlye and succeeds in being a fine beer.

More User Reviews:

This beer is an English style IPA and won't smell or taste the same as an American style IPA made with hops from the U.S. If you expect it to be like most U.S. IPAs you'll be disappointed. But that's not the beer at fault.

The beer pours out into a Duvel glass a clear copper/amber color with a 1/2" ivory head that recedes fairly soon to a layer and island of foam with a ring around the glass. Sipping leaves patches and speckles of lacing with a few legs here and there.

The aroma is mostly malt with a floral character from the hops but seems a bit muted.

The flavors emphasize a rich but not cloying sweetness from the caramel malt, with the floral, fruity, lightly bitter and earthy hops playing in the background.

The mouth feel is medium bodied and the carbonation light but persistent. The finish is moderate in length and basically involves the sweetness receding to leave some modest hop bitterness persisting into the dryness at the end.

On the whole a nicely drinkable, refreshing beer that's worth having again. When I'm in the mood for an English style IPA and can't find the local Yards version this one will do nicely in its place.

I went all in with this beer, buying a half keg for the kegerator as my first taste (a bit pricey as craft beer kegs go). I must say I'm happy with my choice. A little tricky getting the foam under control in the keg, but has a nice slow pour, 2-3 finger head out of the tap, dissipates quickly though. Seeing some other reviews, I have to think it's a different experience out of the keg. Nicely balanced hoppy/floral aroma, and the taste follows suit with satisfying carbonation as well. If you have not had this out of the tap, I would recommend it.

Biggest disappointment of this beer = the taste. Um, this is just rank. No large hop flavors. It tastes even more like grass than the smell. Not a lot of carbonation. Nasty cardboard/packing materials aftertaste coupled with a rather offensive pungent bitterness. Foul.

I have now had two very-less-than-satisfying beers from Brooklyn brewery. My opinion of them has fallen greatly, and I dont know if I really want to spend the money to drink anything else they've put out.

Taste: very low levels of bitterness for an EIPA. The IBUs on this brew must be fairly low. Weird leafy flavor, has this flavor I've tasted before in food. Seems out of place, but I can't put my finger on it; not a fan. It is almost like Brooklyn added chili peppers to accent the flavor. After almost finishing the beer... I figured it out. This tastes just like cream of mushroom soup, with leaves.

Drinkability: Why Brooklyn Brewery? Why? Dear god, why? If I had brewed this I would have thrown it out. I bought a 12 mix pack of Brooklyn's brews and luckily there is only 2 of these in the pack. It seems like Brooklyn might have added this EIPA to the pack to get rid of them. Even the mouthfeel is off.

I had out of a 12 ounce bottle.
A- Rust brown color. Clear and bubbly. Excellent bubbly head with excellent lacing.
S- Decent spice smell followed by a slight metallic scent.
T- Ugh. That just tastes too dry with no flavor except for a mild sourness. This might be skunked but it almost has an American Macro Lager taste, instead of a spicy pale ale.

Best by 5/11. Light copper color with a thin white head. Lots of fast moving bubbles ascending the glass. No lace but a'ight retention.

Aroma is oxidized pear and apricot (as if you leave a pear slice out to long, not that the beer itself is oxidized) like a skunky tripel. Little bit of pepper. Has an Orange Citrus Listerine alcoholic solvency that is egregiously unattractive. Needs, um hops?

a: its a crystal clear golden amber color, with a slightly darker grainy/wheaty color. head is white, slightly rocky. it pours large, but settles at around 1/2 finger

s: tea leaf-like bitterness in the aroma right away. following that is some slightly fruity/berry notes and sweet caramel malt. there is a bready & slightly yeasty background in here as well. smells sweet and refreshing

t: the malts are dominant upfront here. sweet caramel. perhaps a touch of starwberry; i know that sounds crazy. that smoothly gives way to a tea leaf bitterness which is very mild. sweet citrus zest, and a little pepper. there is a faint touch of sweet tropical fruit - mango - here as well. very subtle, but adds a nice layer of sweetness and bitter

m: solid, medium mouthfeel. though the head doesn't stick around, it has a nice carbonation level

o: this is a nice beer to drink. its not overly-complicated, but uses the flavors it has well. its balanced (for the style) and easy to drink. you don't have to think about it too hard while drinking

Really ??? This is not an Ipa by any standard I'm sorry the apperance is good a amber color but the taste is literally like someone took wet leaves and fermented them and the aftertaste is a bit like a chili pepper I guess as others have said but nowhere do I get a bitter hop profile or nose. The mouthfeel was lightly carbonated as far as drinking goes by all means if someone wants a trade please feel free I won't drink this anytime soon. PLease brooklyn go back to the drawing board.

Um...not sure what just happened: this had to be a bad batch or single bottle that I picked up. Looked and smelled good: taste? Oy vey! For a world class brewer--from whom I have never had anything less than a delightful experience--this one literally "pales". If I hadn't had another of their products prior, I would boycott all Brooklyn offerings. Thankfully, that is not the case. I can not recommend this one, though, at all.

This beer pours a pale copper with a solid foamy head. The aroma start with notes of peach and apricot, as well as a solid dose of pine. The flavor begins with fairly soft pine notes, bright resin, as well as fruit notes of candied pineapple. The bitterness is present but moderate. The mouthfeel is light and frothy, not overwhelming at all. Overall this is a very balanced beer, with solid bitterness.

Poured from a 12 ounce bottle into an Ommegang tasting glass. Best before September 2016.
3.5/3.75/4/3.75/4
A: Very clear yellow with light effervescence and a half finger of white head that quickly subsides.
S: Smells like buttery, coppery malts and juicy, citrusy hops.
T/M: Yum. Softer, fruitier hops are the main accent, with a crisp, earthier backbone buttressed by malt. Hint of lemon peel and metal. English-ish. Boring, but tasty. Hefty, quenching mouthfeel.
O: I dunno if this will be winning awards, but it's a solid English-style IPA with American flair.

Brooklyn (New York's second city) is home to one of the truly great second generation brewers. (I count only a handful of 1st generation of craft brewers, the pioneers.) The 2nd Gen made brewing an urban phenomenon and into an industry that powerfully expanded America's notion of taste.

Brooklyn's celebrated brewmaster, Garrett Oliver, is one of the 2nd Gen's key minds. Disciplined in a sometimes wild industry, he wrote/edited "The Oxford Companion to Beer" that I referred to several times a week for about about two years after it came out. (It sits on a back-shelf as I have since moved-on from beer geekdom... as that is not proper for senior citizens.)

Then last year, I bought Mr. Oliver's "The Brewmasters' Table" which came out in 2003. More than anything else, the book has helped me get over my beer biases (mostly too much hops) by helping me understand that hoppy beers have a role with spicy (which I actually prefer, being a vegetarian.)

I could go on, but this is a beer review. Right?

I don't know Garrett's influence on this recipe, but since he started in 1994 it is fair to assume his influence was strong.

And it is a good American rendition that stays pretty close to what the style was and, frankly, now should be. Balanced hops and malts that finishes dryish (instead the common bitter.)
Actually had it with India food. A great complement that repeats itself with Mexican spices and particularly with southeast Asian (reflecting the lemon-grass).

MJ's 1999 edition gave this 3 stars of 4 and said :is extremely dry with the aroma of a hop-pocket and flavors reminiscent of lemon-grass.
Roger Protz gave it a very thoughtful review in "300 More Beers To Try Before You Die!"

Pours a medium copper color with a medium rocky head that leaves no lacing,aroma is hoppy but with a nice caramel malt background.Taste begins a little sweet but the the hoppy dryeness kicks in during mid-swallow a definent dry finish,I do like the malt backbone to this beer.This beer has a good reputation and I can see why.

D: An enjoyable beer but nothing here that makes me want to re-visit. I feel like such a snob to be turning my nose up at a very solid beer but I have to say, it just didn't really stand out for me in any way.

S: Light citrus hops with underlying malts. I would have expected more hops from an IPA but I've been surprised by previous Brooklyn brews.

T: Citrus hops rush foremost but leave room for the light, pale malts they seem to be infused within. Getting past those initial hops allows you to taste those malts and the complexity of this brew comes forth. The finish is moderate, with a mix of early malts and then a longer linger of hops.

M&D: Mouthfeel is relatively light but has a deceptive fullness about it making it very satisfying and thirst quenching. Perhaps not quite as hoppy as I would like my IPA to be but it was enjoyable just the same and definitely worth checking out.

Slightly off white head with a light orange, caramel color. Head formed and disappeared rather quickly leaving a thin layer of bubbles on the top surface.

Aroma is slightly sweet with hints of citrus. There is a touch of sweet bread smell to this one. Overall this one is balanced in flavor, not overdone in the hops department and coupled well with the malts. The initial mouth splashing was a bit sharp. For the hops I picked up some grapefruit flavors, not what I was expecting from the English version of this brew. After warming a touch, the other hop flavors begin to step up a bit and are not near as citrus and lend a resin flavor to this beer, which is more along the lines of my expectations.

Mouthfeel is okay, not very oily like some IPAs and borders on the thin side of things. Drinkability is good for this brew and one of its high marks. Good hit of hops but very well balanced.